Group of Cong leaders meet Rahul Gandhi

Lucknow: Alleging that a "selected few"
presented "distorted" facts before the Congress leader Rahul
Gandhi and demoralised grass root workers which led to party`s
drubbing in recent Uttar Pradesh polls, a group of leaders
from UP on Friday met the party general secretary.

They appealed for handing over the reins of the state,
before the next general elections, to the "grass root worker".

The leaders, who have worked in NSUI and Youth Congress
since 1990, had a 15-minute meeting with Rahul at 10, Janpath,
party sources here said.

In a memorandum, they pointed out despite his (Rahul`s)
all out attempts, a selected few in the party chose to
"distort the facts" before him which led to the defeat, and
demoralised the grass root workers.

Giving 12 points for the defeat, they mentioned lack of
coordination between the UPCC and candidates of district and
city committees and failure of the state unit to translate
into action various programmes announced by Rahul himself like
"jail bharo andolan" during Kanpur rally and plans to hold
kisan rallies during the Bhatta Parsaul stir.

Alleging that the rule that no newcomer would get post
without serving the party for at least three years was
violated, they said giving high posts to those who had
earlier ditched the party led to disappointment among the
workers.

They also identified two central ministers who failed
even to make their representatives win Jhansi and Padrauna
assembly seats and have expressed concern that no
responsibility was fixed.

They said that a road map should be chalked out for the
2014 Lok Sabha elections for which it is important to have the
"leadership of a man who operates at the grass root level" and
had organisation building capabilities and respected by all.

"Tickets were given to former Samajwadi Party workers in
Gaya, Etawah, Mainpuri, Farrukhabad, Auraiyya, Kanpur,
Kannauj, Etah who managed only 4,000-5,000 votes although it
was stated that each prospective candidate would hold a big
rally in the constituency", they said.

"It is important the leadership should be in the hands of
a person who can put stiff challenges before the SP, fight it
out at the ground level against the failures of the present
government," the memorandum said.